Working Mans paradise timeline

Australian workers were in many ways considered much better off than those
overseas. Shorter working hours, the basic wage, increased leisure time,
invalid pensions, very basic workers compensation and maternity allowances
all helped to create the idea that Australian workers were well looked after.
Australians also ate better food than many people overseas and worked
fewer days to pay for their food. During the first decade of the 20
th
century, in
an attempt to achieve social justice, Australian governments introduced many
reforms that were taken for granted today.

1871 - Establishment of Sydney trades and Labour Council.
1873 - First Factories Act passed in Victoria.
1875/6 - Scarlet Fever Epidemic.
1876 - NSW Unions are given legislative protection.
1880s - Economic boom and growth of sweat work.
1881/82 - Small pox epidemic .
1886 - Amalgamated Shearers Union is formed.
- Factories and Shops Act is passed in VIC to fix wages and piece
work rates.
1890s - Economic Depression.
1890 - Great Maritime Strike.
1890/1 - Asiatic influenza pandemic.
1891 - Shearers strike. Australian Labor Party is formed in NSW.
1896 - Factories and Shops Act passed in VIC to fix wages and piece
work rates and stop and exploitative work practices; similar acts
are passed in NSW & QLD. Acts were a result of an anti-sweated-
labour movement.
1898 - NSW Royal Commission on Public Charities.
- South Australian Royal Commission on Relief of the Poor.
1900 - Saturday half-holiday is awarded in QLD, SA & NSW shop
workers are granted half day Saturday holiday.
-Bubonic Plague breaks out in Adelaide and Sydney in January.
- Old Age Pension Acts in VIC & NSW.
1902 - 94 miners killed in a coalmine explosion at Mt Kembla, NSW.
1903 - Railway engine-drivers and firemens strike freezes Victorias
railways.
1907 - Harvest Judgement establishes the principle of the basic wage
for white Australian men.
1908 - Invalid Pensions Scheme in NSW.
1909 - Saturday half-holiday awarded to Melbourne workers.